Luxury's Chess Masters Prepare for a New Game

On a sunny day earlier this month , scores of suited men and women found themselves in a low-rise building on the outskirts of Florence, Italy, walking by bright hand-painted murals of birds of paradise, wildflowers and dreamy-eyed women wearing turbans, T-shirts and rhinestone-encrusted sunglasses. The location? The new Gucci ArtLab The occasion? An investor day for Kering, Gucci’s parent company, with Marco Bizzarri, the chief executive of Gucci, taking on a starring role in front of the assembled crowd His topic: A master plan to make Gucci the largest luxury brand in the world “It’s not a question of if,” he said, “but when” The brand had just posted record annual sales of 62 billion euros, or about $71 billion, in 2017, a 45 percent increase from the prior year.

Now it planned to reach €10 billion in annual sales and a 40 percent operating margin by 2019. To do so, Kering, which . Source